the phraseology and imagery and idioms of that book was formed his
own vernacular style, so racy, glowing, and energetic--long indeed
underrated and decried, but now beginning to receive its due honors,
and winning the praise of critics whose judgment and taste few will
have the hardihood to impeach. No immaculate perfection, indeed, is
claimed for the English version of the Scriptures. No perfect
version has the world ever seen, or is it ever like to see; but the
writings of Bunyan must be admitted to stand among the many crowding
trophies of the power of our common Bible to furnish the mind with
"thoughts that breathe and words that burn"--with holiest
conceptions and mightiest utterances.

And Bunyan himself, as a theologian on whose head no learned academy
had laid its hand of patronage, or let fall its anointing dews, but
who, whether confronting the fanatics of his time or the
distinguished latitudinarian divines, showed himself so powerful a
reasoner, so acute and clear and practical a thinker, and so mighty
in his knowledge of the Scriptures--Bunyan himself, in his position
and merits as a theologian, furnishes a standing monument of the
power of the divine Spirit to fashion, by prayer and the study of
the Bible, by affliction and by temptation, and by bitter
persecutions even, a preacher, pastor, and writer, such as no
university need have disdained to own. To that Spirit Bunyan gave
zealous, earnest, and continual worship. Receiving his light and
power from that good Spirit, and anxiously directing to that great
Agent all the hopes and the praises of the flock whom he led, and of
the readers whom he taught, his writings remain to diffuse and
perpetuate the lesson of his life. Into whatever tribe of the
ancient East or of the remote West his Pilgrim has been introduced,
the name and story of the writer bear, as their great lesson, the